Kyung Hee University
Internship Abroad
Graduate School of Pan-Pacific International Studies (GSP)
Kyung Hee University
Internship Abroad has two primary goals
(1) All students should have a more sophisticated and nuanced understanding of one or
more issue area and/or the host organization as a result of his or her Internship Abroad.
For example, a student working on US Capitol Hill should be well-versed in the issues
facing the Congress or a Congressional committee as well as the role of party leaders,
the president, interest groups, lobbyists, and constituents in the legislative process.
Moreover, each student should be able to demonstrate how his or her experience
diverges from or is similar to his or her previous knowledge. In short, one purpose of
an internship abroad is to demonstrate what the student has learned through experience
as compared to a traditional academic course.
(2) Internships are a form of participant observation, a reputed research method in the
social sciences. As an intern, students are expected to learn more about the practice of
participant observation as well as its strengths and limitations.
Readings
Earl Babbie, The Practice of Social Research, 4/e (Belmont, Cal.: Wadsworth
Publishing Co., 1986), chap. 10, “Field Research.”
Leonard Schatzman and Anselm L. Strauss, Field Research: Strategies for a Natural
Sociology (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1973), chaps. 4-7.
In addition, the host-institution and job specific readings will be assigned by the faculty
adviser on an individual basis.
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GSP
Graduate School of Pan-Pacific International Studies
Kyung Hee University
Requirements and Evaluation
Before you leave
Generic and Specific Preparation (15% toward internship evaluation). Before you
leave for the Internship Abroad, you must attend preparatory seminars and tutorials.
The preparatory work consists of two kinds: general and specific. The general
preparation covers language skills and participant observation method. The specific
preparation is provided in tutorials given by individual faculty advisors. The tutorials
are custom-tailored to meet the needs of students specific to the host institutions and
their jobs. Finally, before you leave you turn in the preliminary “learning objective
statement.” The preparatory work count 10% toward your grade.
While you are performing internship
1) Reflective journal (40%). Each student is required to keep a daily journal of
his/her internship activities. Consistent with the goals of this course, students use the
journal as an opportunity to demonstrate what they are learning about international
affairs and policy issues as a result of their daily activities. The journal should report
your observations as well as make sense of them. A journal also should demonstrate
the substantive knowledge you are gaining of your policy area or organization.
Finally, the journal is an opportunity for you to discuss the pitfalls of participant
observation as well as demonstrate your facility at practicing this method. The journal
also should take time to analyze what the print and broadcast media are saying about
your particular issue area, branch of government, or agency. The journal entries
must be written every day and sent to your faculty adviser via e-mail on a daily
basis or at least twice a week.
- What you should enter in the journal.
Let’s say that you are working in a congressional office responding to constituent mail.
You observe a high volume of mail from the member’s district on prayer in schools.
The staff does not seem particularly concerned about the volume of mail on this issue.
Initially you find this curious because you thought that most representatives would be
very sensitive to constituent mail. You determine though more observations (the
member’s vote on certain issues, discussions with staff) that your member is relatively
insulated from his constituency (he won by a large margin in the previous election and
is supported largely by folks who are not concerned about morality issues such as prayer
in the schools.).
This observation could lead you into a discussion about
representation, constituent influence. The key to good journal writing is sustained
observation, careful notetaking, and thoughtful analysis. In short, observe, record,
analyze—that is the intern’s credo! As your internship unfolds, you undoubtedly will
decide to read the appropriate political science literature on representation,
congressional mail, and congressional staff to see how your observations square with
those of professional political scientists.
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GSP
Graduate School of Pan-Pacific International Studies
Kyung Hee University
- The daily journals will be evaluated on a weekly basis.
- First 1/4 (10%): In the first 1/4 entries, describe the environment in which you are
working. You must comment on the applicability of your readings on field research to
your internship experience. We expect that you follow the guidelines for taking good
field notes as discussed by Babbie and Schatzman and Strauss. During this period you
also have to complete your “learning objective statement.”
- Second 1/4 (10%): In addition to recording observations and beginning an analysis of
your internship, you must know what scholars have written about your policy area or
institution. The only way you can compare your experience with that of others is to
complete a short bibliography of the scholarly literature in an area covered by the
internship. You bibliography should be attached to this journal assignment. The
bibliography should consist of six or seven scholarly articles or three books or a
mixture. Your faculty adviser may make additional suggestions.
- Third 1/4 (10%) and Fourth 1/4 (10%): By this time we expect entries to show
considerable analytic ability. A thesis should have been developed as a result of
reading the bibliography formulated in the second week and you should be on your way
to evaluating the soundness of that thesis.
2) Information Gathering: While you perform your internship, you should collect
materials and information about your host institution. You must submit them along with
your completion report after you return to GSP (see below)
3) Supervisor Evaluation (25%) Before you leave the host institution, you should
make arrangements for an evaluation by your host institution to be sent directly to the
Associate Dean, GSP. The evaluation can be made on either the host institution form, if
any, or the GSP-provided form.
After you come back
Completion Report: Immediately after you finish your internship, you should file a
completion report with the Academic Affairs office, GSP. Along with the report, you
should turn in whatever documents verify your internship, materials you have collected
about your host institution, and the ticket stub or the boarding passes.
Letter of Thanks: As soon as possible, write a letter to your supervisor to convey your
thanks for all he or she has done for you.
1) Internship Paper (25%). The final project for Internship Abroad takes the form of
a 15 page, double-spaced typewritten paper. The paper integrates the data from your
journal with the scholarly wisdom derived from your review of the secondary literature.
It is the final statement regarding your judgment of how well the conventional wisdom
is confirmed or disconfirmed by your internship experience. Unlike the journal, which
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GSP
Graduate School of Pan-Pacific International Studies
Kyung Hee University
can focus on many topics in a given period, the paper had better focus on one topic.
For example, you may choose to write on whether members of Congress are primarily
interested in seeking re-election, on the importance of the security in understanding US
foreign policy, or the allegiance of cabinet secretaries to their president or to the
agency’s constituent groups. All of these topics have a literature. Your task in the final
paper is to review that literature and bring original evidence from your internship to add
to the continuing debate on these and other topics.
The internship paper should be submitted to your faculty advisor within four(4) weeks
after the internship ends.
2) Reflection Session: Before the new semester begins, meetings will be held to discuss
your internship experience. These sessions will be an opportunity for you to share
with your peers what you have learned in your internship.
Summary
Pre-Field Preparation
Daily Journals
Internship Paper
Evaluation by the Host Institution
10%
40%
25%
25%
On the basis of faculty supervisor evaluation, the Associate Dean recommends Pass or
Fail to the Dean and the Academic Affairs Steering Committee.
Credits for Overseas Internship
Students can earn credits for a successfully completed overseas internship that last eight
(8) weeks or more. The number of credits is graduated upon the duration of the
internship. The credits can be accumulated up to 9 credits in case the student performs
overseas internship more than once.
8 weeks or more: 3 credits
16 weeks or more: 6 credits
24 weeks or more: 9 credits
To earn credits, the student must be enrolled as a full-time student at the GSP and
submit one research paper for every three (3) credits. For example, in case the student
wants to earn nine (9) credits for overseas internship, s/he must successfully perform a
24 week or longer internship abroad and submit, in addition to all other requirements,
three(3) research papers related to the said internship. The papers will be evaluated on
their own merits, in separate from the internship evaluation. Never assume that the
credits will given automatically when one completes the internship.
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GSP
Graduate School of Pan-Pacific International Studies